Singapore Residential ViewPoint - Are We Ready for Shorter Tenures? April 2017

- In Singapore, where nearly 90% of the population own a home, housing affordability has always been a major concern.

- Due to escalating land costs as well as loan curbs, developers have in recent years adopted the strategy of downsizing the units to keep them within the affordability threshold of most homebuyers. However, there is a limit to how much smaller the units can get while still remaining decently liveable space – even as decreasing home sizes are still acceptable as household sizes shrink.

- Shorter tenures can be one of the effective tools to lower land prices. HDB tested it out in August 2015 with the “two-room flexi scheme”.

- With prices ranging from S$36,700 to S$110,000, the take-up rate was very encouraging.

- The government can consider introducing shorter tenures for private housing. It may be one of the levers that the government can pull in the mid- to long-term to complement the existing measures and to keep home prices at affordable levels.